43-Ideas-Per-Minute

It should be noted that during the Revolutionary W...

2011-07-04T11:43:20.751-05:00

It should be noted that during the Revolutionary War that the conservatives were all on the British side.

Well now, thank you kindly for the link to my litt...

2011-06-18T15:31:35.031-05:00

Well now, thank you kindly for the link to my little corner of the web.

I'll address your seemingly endless preamble i...

2011-06-16T09:05:43.272-05:00

I'll address your seemingly endless preamble in each part as you have presented - despite the fact that you appear to have completely missed the clearly enumerated point of this post.

Considering what Rand postulated within the pages of "Atlas" - especially Galts 70-plus page rant that lead to the birth of "Objectivism" - one can't but state with absolute certainty that this was her magnum opus and her primary thesis, thereby solidifying her ideological bent. And considering the fact that the Modern American Right are considering it - at least in metaphorical terms - akin to Holy Writ, I think it's completely fair to point out that there is a very minimal market for this type of psuedo-philosophical blather.

The difference between Rand and Tolstoy & Hugo is that they at least presented some material that crossed boarders. Not everyone enjoys reading about the plight of the railroad industry and who wants to be a "successful" architect.

In terms of religion - Christianity most explicitly - it should be pointed out that Rand was quite blatant in her anti-Christian stance. I won't get into the nuance of the demonstrably false pages of whatever biblical scripture you care to reference, as many of us on the Left are either against strict implementation of religious dogma or are more than capable of showing the Modern American Right that the book that they hoist as if it were the American Flag that they understand it as much as a toddler understand the intricate nature of physics.

But to answer your laughable notion that Progressives have suddenly "embraced religion", I would offer the fact that you neither understand Liberal/Progressive theory nor Biblical text that the Modern American Right champions. And to claim that this is some form of "bubble" that we have created in an attempt to challenge the Right also shows your ignorance of the nature of "bubbles" - or at least you are clearly attempting to force the ideal of "bubble culture" to make your point seem all the more valid.

I will be honest at this point - I have no idea who Micheal Prescott is, nor do I care, as you are using a clearly defined ideal of Right Wing framing which I can easily spot from even the greatest of distances.

No one within the Modern Liberal/Progressive movement is "satanizing" Ayn Rand. This is simply a way for you and your ideological kindred to continue your Culture of Victimhood.

I appreciate the fact that you responded to my post, but next time it would favor you more if you actually did so within the context of it.

One part of the foolishness of the recent debates ...

2011-06-15T18:18:17.341-05:00

One part of the foolishness of the recent debates about Rand is the idea that agreeing with Rand's prediction and diagnoses in "Atlas Shrugged" - the accuracy of which has been demonstrated in the last few years to a nicety - somehow magically commits one to agreement with her total philosophy. Would this argument be extended to an atheist leftist who recommends Tolstoy or Victor Hugo?

The other part is a specific misrepresentation of Christianity. Christianity is not a pro-Statism religion; indeed, given who killed their Savior, it tends to the anti-State. (This is something the left has not yet dealt with.) Nowhere in the Bible does it say that wealth should be expropriated and redistributed by the dubious means of government structures; it speaks of personal and *voluntary* charity. One might add, looking at the horrific debt and unfunded liabilities situation that the U.S. is in right now, that the Bible and Jesus were wise in staying away from government panaceas.

This entire kabuki charade is in bad faith. The Bible does not advocate any Progressive notions of "economic justice." The progressives who have suddenly discovered religion and its necessary role in politics - after thirty decades and more of stridently and rightly insisting it must be kept out of politics - are not sincere. After this temporary rhetorical bubble is over, they will resume their previous, also ad-hoc, declarations.

As for the "sociopath" accusation, this is what comes of copying attack website garbage. The whole thing rests upon one author - Michael Prescott's - highly selective excerpting and chopping up of a private [i.e., thinking out loud without clarifications ] journal written when Rand was barely out of her teens, fresh from the blood bath of 1920s Soviet Russia - and still made it very clear that her read on the personalities of the observers showed that they were not appalled by Hickman's crime - she said there had been far worse, without the same spectacle of glee - but by his flamboyant and mocking defiance of society. She - who was writing about a *legally innocent man* at the time of the trial - even called him a repulsive and purposeless criminal. Enough with the disinformation and - yes - Satanizing of Ayn Rand.

I think there needs to be a balance of responding ...

2011-06-08T23:48:51.798-05:00

I think there needs to be a balance of responding to claims and just pointing out that they are trying to frame the message their own particular way. And while Weiner is certainly not a Republican, this episode does dampen his credibility enough to where he won't be as effective as he had been. That being said, it's interesting to note that the Right have got this incensed with Vitter or Ensign with their exploits that went much much further.

I wish we could just ignore the right. To be hones...

2011-06-08T08:10:16.572-05:00

I wish we could just ignore the right. To be honest, I have not been paying attention to Weiner-gate. Funny that I immediately assumed he was a rEpublican. Having come up in the Reagan years, I remember when right-wing depravity made the Democrats look like a bunch of wallflowers.

A quote you might like: http://dariuswhiteplume.tumblr.com/post/6262601982/elledark-truth

Also, discovered I am 2% more evil at my blog. You got some catching up to do, sire ;-)

Do what ya gotta do but don't stop posting at ...

2011-04-12T17:48:28.641-05:00

Do what ya gotta do but don't stop posting at least on occasion.

"Why does the Right hate education?" is ...

2011-03-18T22:42:32.606-05:00

"Why does the Right hate education?" is one I ask a lot. I go for variations like "Don't you want your surgeon to be well-educated? Don't you want a large pool of professionals?"

I also often ask variations of "Don't you want the outdoors to be clean? Don't you want to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat clean food?"

Lately it's been "Why are you making fun of me for supporting innovation and new jobs with renewable energy? Don't you think the world would be better off if we were cleaning up glass and overturned windmills instead of trying to chase radioactive vapor? Do you really think the inventors of the past wanted innovation to end with them?"

How is the fact that a majority of NPR funds come ...

2011-03-11T08:25:09.539-06:00

How is the fact that a majority of NPR funds come from individuals and organizational grants "laughable"? Do you mean that it fails more often than not to report what the people find important?

In terms of governmental funding reductions, I would have to say that those have been enacted primarily because of Right Wing posturing, and the perception that NPR is some bastion of Leftist theology.

And what "extinguishing circumstances" do you speak of?

NPR has had budget cuts year after year and each t...

2011-03-10T09:33:26.432-06:00

NPR has had budget cuts year after year and each time their freedom to report news has been curtail. The fact that its a "people funded" radio is laughable at best. The Gov has cut the their tax $ fund all the while placing pressure on the staff to spin the news their way. in other words say nice things and we can give you more if not your on your own. O'Keefe maybe complicit (as with others) however i think this may have extinguishing circumstances.

You should definitely check out Nursery Academy an...

2011-03-01T12:32:59.074-06:00

You should definitely check out Nursery Academy and The Lottery. Both of them have to do with child placement in charter schools and academies. The Lottery is about a charter school with a lottery and Nursery Academy is about the huge hubbub that is the New York City push for the best nursery schools because they lead directly to certain colleges. (or so they say)I just got a copy of Waiting for Superman today, so I'll be checking it out. But I do think that charter schools DO some good for the public education system. Because it forces the public school to actually do some things better so that they can get the students so they can get the funding. It opens up some competitiveness. But don't confuse charter school with private school. Most of the "non" public schools here are private schools and not charter. Charter schools are almost like a midway point between private and public.

Let's indeed take a look at why I correctly la...

2011-02-24T20:12:57.819-06:00

Let's indeed take a look at why I correctly labeled Scheuer as a Right Winger. His primary task on every program he is featured on is to tear apart the Obama administration in relation to foreign affairs. By that, he's a Right Winger. But your poor attempt to place me into checkmate with the "well, what about Bush" meme du jour that so many of your ilk like to trot out simply when it's convenient falls flat from the very start. The reality is that the modern American Right - even during the closing months of the Bush occupation of the White House - is that Bush wasn't Right Wing enough. See Michelle Malkin for a classic example of this form of socio-political ping pong.

Lastly, we were embroiled in a poorly thought out occupation of Iraq predicated on the precise claim that Scheuer now considered "Marxist thought". If you really need such obvious things pointed out to you, then you're not nearly as clever as you think you are.

As expected, your response was completely devoid o...

2011-02-24T12:54:06.571-06:00

As expected, your response was completely devoid of any facts or substantiating arguments.

1) Scheuer doesn't agree with Obama's policies, so he must be right wing. What did that make him when he criticized the Bush Administration's policies?

2) The quote you agreed to consider in context is not Republican Ideology. As has already been established, Scheuer is not a Republican shill (despite your weak attempts to discredit this fact) - so his responses need not toe the Republican Response line. And what's hypocritical about stating that people living under a totalitarian Marxist regime swallow the propaganda that they're force fed about the beauty of communism? Or that the residents of the more-or-less democratic United States believe that anyone who is given a chance for democracy will embrace it over any less enlightened alternative?

3) One of us is thinking, but it's not the person you think it is. Here's a clue, it's not you.

Go ahead, throw out a few more vague contradictions to my logically sound arguments. I would expect no less of you (and certainly no more).

Considering his standpoints regarding the Obama ad...

2011-02-19T00:01:46.617-06:00

Considering his standpoints regarding the Obama administration - which is precisely why he is in the employ of Fox"News" as an "analyst" - he is well within the confines of the term "Right-Winger".

And yes, let's look at that quote - in context. Not only is Scheuer going against years of Republican ideological posturing, but you are ignoring the blatant and hypocritical nature of his words.

You, sir, should think before you attempt to defend someone.

Typical progressive blather. What do you base yo...

2011-02-18T13:31:14.381-06:00

Typical progressive blather.

What do you base your labeling of Micheal Scheuer as a "Right Winger"? He's a former CIA analyst - so that automatically makes him a "right winger?" I didn't know anything about him until you decided to drag his name through the mud, but after very minimal research, I can safely conclude that he is, although an avowed Republican, not "right-wing " as you refer to it. He's been as open a critic of the Bush Administration policies/actions as he has been of the Obama Administration's. He is against policies that weaken America's security. Does that make him "right wing" in your tiny little mind?

Granted, Micheal Scheuer's use of "Marxist-like" may have been a poor choice of words (I'll bet you were all over Sarah Palin's use of "blood libel" too, weren't you). But if you put it in context, it's easy to see that he was was referring to the tendency of people living under a Marxist regime to have dogmatic faith in the policies their leaders foist upon them. Let's look at the full quote:
"Americans seems to be increasingly Marxist-like in their absolute faith in democracy for people who have never had any experience with the process."

You, sir, are a moron.

Title - "The Only People Who Are More Stupid ...

2011-02-08T14:57:02.141-06:00

Title - "The Only People Who Are More Stupid Than Me Are The People Who Buy And Read This Book"

I did not say anything about desiring an education...

2011-01-23T05:58:43.349-06:00

I did not say anything about desiring an education. I said elitists think that only a college education is of any value. They turn their noses up at plumbing, auto repair, etc. That's why these kinds of classes have practically disappeared in high schools across the country.

I am sure there is a list of sales positions a mile long that "require" a college degree, when no degree is actually required. I would go so far as to say that elementary school teachers don't need a college degree. Especially in the first few years, where you are teaching numbers, alphabet, basic reading, basic math, and that sort of thing. If they can read the text books used to teach the students, they can teach the students. Innumerably home schoolers have shown this to be true. And they don't have to take a bulletin board making class to do it. And it would be less likely that the latest pointless educational fad would take over and ruin a few years' worth of students, as happens now. Of course, the teachers' unions would never stand for it.

Now, I am not talking about schooling in general, only in a university education. It has its place, but it's not for most people. Most people need training in their fields, and that is all. Most people need to be retrained for new jobs unimagined when they were in school. Very little of the newest products provided in the economy are invented by college grads -- though they may use a few to help design the product.

And I won't even get into the fact that much education is entirely beside the point even for those who do need college degrees. Most economists are mathematicians who don't understand the first thing about the economy. Because math is too simple a tool to use to try to understand a complex, evolving, dynamic, self-organizing process consisting of independent, choosing actors with subjective valuations. Thus, most economists were left wondering how on earth the recession happened -- oh, except for one group of economists, who don't rely on math to understand the economy: the Austrian economists. They had been predicting exactly what happened.

Either way, it is well established that the vast majority of college grads end up in jobs that have nothing to do with their majors. No doubt all the accountants have accounting degrees -- but I would bet that there is a good percentage of accounting majors who don't do any accounting at all, other than with their own checkbooks.

What jobs are you referring to when you state that...

2011-01-22T08:48:20.802-06:00

What jobs are you referring to when you state that some require collegiate documentation when they shouldn't? I may be inclined to agree with you had you provided examples.

Secondly, I am surprised that you equated higher education with the clearly pointed Right Wing meme that anyone desiring to obtain a college degree is somehow an "elitist", as that has always been a buzz word intended to claim that those with a college diploma somehow think the rest of the world is beneath them.

Am I reading this wrong? I hope so.

But in reference to what you do enumerate regarding "Business schools", I would have to agree - there are schools that do nothing more than bolster the already pointless employment category that is there to do nothing more than micromanage what shouldn't be.

Are schools like WKU - where you and I both attended - of no value? I would argue to the contrary. Are there jobs that over-value a collegiate degree? I suppose that could be true, based on the job in question. After all, I wouldn't feel comfortable with a person doing accounting for my recently started business having nothing but a high school diploma.

A university education is highly overrated, as I&#...

2011-01-20T16:11:59.160-06:00

A university education is highly overrated, as I've talked about here:

http://zatavu.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-praise-of-peter-thiel.html

There is a higher education bubble precisely because we have been told that only a college education is of any value. That's what happens when you have the combination of elitism and egalitarianism you find on the left. The result is that jobs that do not in fact require a college degree now require one, and jobs that previously only required a college degree now require graduate degrees. There are distortions created across this economy precisely because of the lie that everyone should get a university education.

This isn't to say that there should not be the right kinds of education for people -- just that a university education is not required. Most people should be going to trade schools to develop actual skills that can be actually used. The universities should be reserved for those pursuing things like the sciences and the arts and humanities. Computer science? Trade school. Business schools are a waste -- all they do is train middle managers. You can't teach people to be inventors or entrepreneurs. Many of the most successful examples of such people either didn't go to college or dropped out.

In the end, what I am really recommending is that we both encourage and provide a wider variety of training. College isn't for everyone -- and all too often it is downright cruel and irresponsible to suggest that it is.

I based this entirely on my experience as a college professor. Never mind the occasional bullshit ideological objections -- the rest of their points are dead-on.

well i sure hope Bowie is playing :)

2011-01-14T14:29:02.482-06:00

well i sure hope Bowie is playing :)

by far the most balanced assesment of the shooting...

2011-01-11T10:10:28.086-06:00

by far the most balanced assesment of the shooting i've read or heard yet...

Perino is the devil. There is a special room in HE...

2011-01-04T03:30:48.669-06:00

Perino is the devil. There is a special room in HELL reserved for her because she knows EXACTLY what she is doing and that everything she is saying is total and utter bullshit. She loves the attention of the camera. If FOX wasn't around she would have invented something similar because it's all about HER. I truly hate this woman.

I'm sorry but the whole time I was watching th...

2010-12-14T10:37:43.600-06:00

I'm sorry but the whole time I was watching that trailer I kept thinking of a joke that my Mom told me. *LOL* Anyways, I don't have much faith in "comic turned movie" movies. You have a few gems, but not often.

First, you make the mistake of equating society wi...

2010-12-02T13:36:42.494-06:00

First, you make the mistake of equating society with family. Families are rigidly hierarchical. A healthy society in no way, shape, or form looks like a family (nor should the family look like a society). This is the basis of the error in your example of being one's brother's keeper. If I don't take care of my brother, that makes me a bad person; but if you rob me at gunpoint to give my money to my brother, that makes you a bad person. (Obama, coincidentally, doesn't take care of his actual family, but insists on forcing us to "take care" of everyone -- which is really a euphemism for government control and the destruction of liberty.) Now, I think we certainly agree that the best society is one that takes care of the least among us -- but there is no historical evidence that government is the best way to do this; quite the contrary, in fact. History shows that governments destroy the social bonds that improve peoples' lives. We in fact see an inverse relationship between private giving and government "giving" (government doesn't give, as it first has to take from others to "give"). The least generous populations have the most generous governments, while the U.S., with one of the "least generous" governments, has the most generous population by far. As a result, the U.S. is the most generous society on earth.

The blank slate theory is wrong. It has been known to be wrong for a long time now. If your liberalism is based on the blank slate theory of the mind, it is time for you to learn about how the mind actually works and the strongly heritable nature of intelligence, disposition, etc.

There are different kinds of equal. There is the idea that people are equal in fact (also known as egalitarianism), which is demonstrably wrong. But there is also equality under the law (equal before God, if you will). Under equality under the law, no amount of money, intelligence, or social status comes into play when determining innocence or guilt. Here you treat people as equals. Under egalitarianism, you have to treat people unequally in order to get equality of outcome. This destroys equality under the law, and liberty with it.

Does your right to life mean you have the right to demand something from another, potentially depriving them of their life? Does your right to life mean you have the right to demand anothers' right to liberty be curtailed? A right to something like health care means you are demanding that someone -- doctors and nurses -- hand over the life and liberty to you. Thus, a right to health care cannot be a right, because it necessarily infringes on the rights of others -- and no right can infringe upon another right. Feel free to argue for socialized health care if you want, but don't sully the definition of rights to do so. What you are really saying is that you value free health care over the rights of doctors and nurses. You never have a right to demand the actions of others.

One has a right to pursue happiness, not to achieve it. Otherwise, for the most part, I agree with you. Live and let live. So long as you don't use force or fraud, do as you wish. Of course, this attitude against force and fraud are precisely why I'm anti-left/liberal and anti-conservative.

The half term governor is a "Dan Quayle"...

2010-11-29T23:01:14.253-06:00

The half term governor is a "Dan Quayle" in heels. Since we already had an idiot "W" that caused our current economic debacle, America knows not to trust in fools who think they are brilliant. One of the reason for "W" failure was his drinking, Palin just has bad genes.